Tim Worstall

You want to know how to control the abusers of children who patrol the internet?
Bring back the death penalty for murder.
That’s the Mirror. So it’s not “right wing” to be baying for snapped necks then really.
I don’t of course, agree myself. But if they were to bring it in for the use of Facebook [...]

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Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “It is unfortunate that the court has enabled Catholic Care to exploit what was obviously an error in the drafting of the equality legislation. The loophole this created was never intended to be used this way.”
Now that’s about adoption and [...]

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For most assuredly we’ll hang separately.
Yes, Harry’s Place, hit by another idiot libel claim from the same set of solicitors that have failed dismally with the last three.
How many more such things before being able to get them judged as vexatious litigants? Something which, I assume, would be bad for business for a bunch of [...]

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Seems that she’s getting a bit of a bollocking this morning:
Persistent claims that only six per cent of rapes end in conviction was seen as a useful “campaigning tool ” by some but was “extremely unhelpful”, warned Baroness Stern, the cross-bench peer who carried out [...]

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Ministers have suggested that all breeds of dogs be covered by compulsory third party liability policies, and have asked whether owners who fail to take out insurance should be punished with fines or other sanctions.
There are pet insurance companies. They would clearly benefit from the passing of [...]

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Contrary to those who claim that domicile is some strange beast grafted onto the UK tax system,. it’s actually quite an important part of the Common Law:
But at the heart of last week’s hearing is the issue of where the Turkish Cypriot tycoon was domiciled when he died.
Erkin and his family insist that Ramadan Guney’s [...]

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Welcome to the modern world Mr. Kafka!
The report said the probation system lacks the resources to deal with the thousands of prisoners on Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPP), who now make up one in fifteen of the total prison population.
Indeterminate sentences were introduced in 2005 for [...]

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I’m a big fan of asking “and then?”
You know, someone comes up with a bright idea to make the world a better place and all too often no one’s asking, well, yes, but what happens after that? What will follow? And then?
But under an amendment to the Equality Bill tabled in the House of Lords [...]

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Much as people don’t believe it a life sentence does in fact mean that. Murder someone and you might only serve a few years, this is true, but the life sentence ios always there in the background.
Breach the licence conditions and you’ll be back in jail, no trial, no court and no lawyer to save [...]

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I actually find myself agreeing with Gordon Brown:
For let us be clear: death as an option and an entitlement, via whatever bureaucratic processes a change in the law might devise, would fundamentally change the way we think about mortality.The risk of pressures – however subtle – on the frail and the vulnerable, [...]

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The Abbey Road recording studios could be listed within a week as part of a move by English Heritage to ensure that they are not turned into flats.
Currently the building has a value of x.
By listing the building so as to remove possible uses the value is now x minus something.
It must be x [...]

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Now I know that bankers aren’t the most loved of creatures at present but:
Barclays Capital has been forced to break contractual agreements with some of its star bankers after bowing to regulatory demands on bonus payments.
The investment banking arm of Britain’s third biggest bank on Friday set aside a [...]

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Commander Ali Dizaei became the highest-ranking officer to be convicted of a criminal offence in 33 years. A jury took 10 minutes to convict…..
Those last 7 words speak volumes about this case.

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It is impossible to understand why their lordships think that such a consideration should take precedence over diminishing a clear and present danger to national security.
Well, you know, actually, umm, it’s not impossible to understand.
The judges on the Supreme Court understand something which all too many seem to have [...]

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One of the things that definitely comes out of studies on what produces economic growth is that the rule of law is a necessary but not sufficient condition for there to be sustained economic growth.
If contracts can be torn up at bureaucratic or political whim then investments tend not to be made because of those [...]

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At a special “review conference” in Kampala, Uganda, the nations which have signed up to the court, including Britain, will consider a proposal to let the court try the “crime of aggression” – the offence allegedly committed by Tony Blair.
If the proposal, backed by more than [...]

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The ruddy-faced Maxwell-Hyslop’s fascination with procedure both infuriated and delighted his colleagues. He was described as “the finest procedure bore of his generation” and “one of those heroic figures in whom tirelessness and tiresomeness are combined in equal measure”. Even those who admired [...]

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Umm, yes, well, I dunno.
Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector, has been arrested for allegedly propositioning what he believed to be a 15-year-old girl on an internet chat room.
The truth of the matter, of course I have absolutely no idea.
But it would be so terribly convenient if such a sterling critic of the [...]

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Yes, I know, the law is the law:
The former Royal Marine, who became notorious for his naked hike from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 2003, has spent much of the past seven years in prison for repeatedly appearing nude in public.
He was yesterday found guilty of breaching the [...]

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Pavements are being left covered in ice because of “ludicrous” laws that put home owners and businesses at risk of being sued if they try to clear them.
Later in the piece they refer to legislation. And it ain’t legislation.
But the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, the professional body representing 36,000 health [...]

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